sewing

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A Weekend of Craft Shops, Day 1

Yesterday I regaled you with my confession of otakuness, and here is the proof.

This past weekend we set out to Futako-tamagawa in search of a craft shop.  That’s right, I lured Dan along with the promise of ramen, but we somehow ran out of time.  I’m a cruel woman.

Hobbyra Hobbyre and Lido Merceria are not just craft stores, but Tokyo shopping at its best — small, well-curated specialty shops for the enthusiast.

Let’s begin with Hobbyra Hobbyre, a French-embroidery-inspired, Liberty-of-London-lover’s paradise.  This shop carries a little bit of a lot of things, but all were of the best quality — beautiful cotton and linen print fabrics, fine yarns and wood knitting needles, sewing patterns and books, needlework supplies, selected tools and notions, and amazing printed embroidery kits.  I mean amazing.  I wanted to leave with a few of each.

The downside to this shop is that it’s a bit expensive.  Fabric was in the 1000-2500 yen per meter range (US$12-$30 per yard), yet I picked up some reasonably-priced sashiko supplies for 200 yen each (US$2.50).  Dan told me later that, while waiting outside, he got a bit nervous when a woman left the shop exclaiming how expensive it all was, because I was still inside, taking my sweet time, certainly doing damage to our bank account.  My words, not his of course.

The crown jewel of the day, maybe my entire week, was the Hello Kitty + Liberty of London limited edition cotton prints.  Both have a dedicated cult following (many of you know about my little Liberty crush), and they’ve combined forces to produce some of the most whimsical and lovely fabric I’ve seen.  I stood there for a while trying to come up with a project idea worth the 3200 yen per meter price tag (almost US$40 per yard), but in the end I decided I couldn’t love Ms. Kitty quite enough.

This sneak-attack photo doesn’t reveal much (photos aren’t typically allowed in craft stores), but the print is of Hello Kitty flitting amongst London Town icons.  (Apparently this collection is only being sold in Japan, so if anyone is interested I’d be willing to go find some and put up a reserved listing in my shop – send me an email to discuss).

I went to Futako-tamagawa in search of Hobbyra Hobbyre, but was delighted to find Lido Merceria just next door.  Where Hobbyra Hobbyre is all things embroidery and French floral, Lido Merceria is German retro-era needlepoint.


Lido Merceria feels more like a curiosity shop than a craft store.  I loved the display case of vintage scissors and tools (yes, those are $85 embroidery snips, for anyone who is counting). With notions, buttons and trim, patches, and upholstery-weight fabric, all in varying degrees of vintage and new, this shop was a treat.

And what did I end the day with? I showed incredible restraint — sashiko thread in pretty pastels, a printed sashiko pattern, and a few swatches of Liberty fabric.  Not a bad day.

Getting there: Take the Tokyu-Den-Entoshi Line from Shibuya station or the Tokyu-Oimachi Line to Futako-tamagawa station.  Cross through Dogwood Plaza to locate the Takashimaya Shopping Center. Lido Merceria and Hobbyra Hobbyre and on the 5th floor of the South building, across from the Camper shoe store.

Lido Merceria  Tel. 03-6805-6822, open 10-9
Hobbyra Hobbyre  ホビーラホビーレ  Tel. 03-3707-1430, open 10-9

Tamagawa Takashimaya S-C South Building 5F, 3-17-1 Tamagawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

〒158-0094 東京都世田谷区玉川3-17-1 玉川高島屋S・C 南館5F

According to their website, Hobbyra Hobbyre can be found in other locations around Japan.  Check store locations on their website for more information.

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Procraftination

Action Craft is well underway! I’ve received a few shipments of quilts already and I’ve gotten word more are on the way. Keep up the great work, friends! I’ll be photographing the quilts and posting updates here, so keep an eye out for that.

Yesterday I realized we were getting close to the end-of-April deadline I set, and I had yet to start my quilt. Insert nervous-guilty face. So I went digging into my fabric stash, and ended up with this:

I made Dan a tie instead. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, and I had a beautiful chunk of Liberty fabric just sitting around.  This tie begged me to make it.

Pro·craf·ti·nation (v.) to delay or postpone one craft with the commencement of another; to put-off doing something with a deadline by making something else for fun

The last time we were in Pennsylvania visiting family, Dan found a stash of his dad’s old ties and pocketed a few. I must have married into a stylish family, because these ties are hip. Not vintagey or trendy, but with some sort of timeless style.  They’re skinny with a square end, which is such a great detail. I could make a joke about square being hip, but perhaps I’ll spare you.

Dan’s mom got word of the tie trend in our house, and sent me a stained one and a seam ripper.

The vintage labels are amazing.  Bonwit Teller?  Where did you go with your classy top hat?  This tie was easy and really fun to make, I even enjoyed the hand-sewing. When I presented it to him (thinly veiling my pure glee), Dan called it “festive” which I choose to interpret as a positive thing. Must not be so bad, since he wore it to work today.

But back to Action Quilt — I did manage to stitch a few pieces together:

Now, back to sewing … or tie-making, or blogging, or grocery shopping or a trip to the post office, or maybe some more sashiko…

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I Really Need to Stab Something

It has been a tough week, so when my calendar buzzed to remind me about sashiko class this afternoon, I had mixed feelings. Though I knew it would be good for me to be around other humans, going to class takes so much effort. I know I’m whining, but listening is hard work.

I decided to buck up and go, and as always, I am glad I did. It turned out I really just needed to stab something.

In case you are new here, a quick debriefing: my craft-time pastime of choice is sashiko, a style of embroidery, which in Japanese means “little stabs.”  And I love to overwork the pun.  As can be evidenced here, here and here.  And here.

The concentrated craft time made me feel better.

A new kit was waiting for me when I got to class, a pouch for holding my sashiko goods.  The kit comes with everything you’ll need — thread, fabric, pattern.  The design includes an image of Japanese scissors, which according to Dan look like Pac Man.  I have scissors more like this, which all the ladies get a kick out of.  (For those observant few — yep, that is a sashiko coaster.  More on that to come…)

Class-time chatter was mostly about shopping.  I think I picked up on this mostly because I’ve become familiar with the various department stores (mmmm, food halls), though I’ve also learned a few more verbs (yay for action words!).  The ladies were cheerful, and they watched me stitch and nodded their approval.  My sensei even sent me home with her pouch, so I can have a model to look at while I work between classes.  Look at the size of her stitches on the left, compared to mine on the right.  So teeeny.  I’ve got some practicing to do.

Here is the reverse, what my pouch will look like someday.  The red felt is for holding pins and needles, and the pouch will hold all my threads and tools.  I’m so excited.  The only thing I love as much as crafting is organizing my crafts.

My favorite part of every class is show-and-tell.  I love watching as everyone pulls out the projects they’ve completed since we last met, and the whole table echos with sugoi! With this group of crafty old ladies it comes from the gut, and the table sounds like a chorus of beer-chuggin’ dudes.  I love it.

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New Year, New Bags (and a giveaway!)

~ This giveaway is no longer accepting entries.  Scroll down to see who won! ~

Happy New Year and あけましておめでとうございます everyone!  In addition to wandering the streets of Tokyo in the middle of the night, I’ve decided that what 2011 really needs is a new stock of bags in my web shop.  Hooray for 2011!

Maybe you resolved to be a bit more organized?  Or want to treat yourself for surviving 78-straight hours of family?  Well, it’s your lucky day year!

And what better way to start a new year than to give things away.   That’s right dear readers, in honor of the Year of the Rabbit 卯 I’ve whipped up two (let the record show that I wanted to make 2,011…) polka-dot, sashiko-clad, bunny-lined zipper bags that are just hopping mad for some new homes:

If you’d like a chance at one, leave me a comment by 12:00 midnight EST USA time on January 4th (that’s 2 pm, January 5th Tokyo time).  Maybe tell me your predictions for 2011 (Zombies take over the world and finally rid us of teen vampire movies?  Yay!), or perhaps something you’d like to see on this blog (more ramen photos? OK!), or just a little note to say “Hi, friend.”  I’ll use the random number generator to select TWO winners, lucky you!  And you!

Fine print: One entry per person/e-mail address. The winners will be selected using random.org and announced as an update to this post, so come back here for the announcement.  Items can be shipped worldwide.  Good luck!

~~~~~

And the winners are… commenters 15 & 9!  Congrats to Nick and Bridget, and a special thanks to everyone for their comments, predictions, and notes!  Keep an eye on Saké Puppets for more giveaways – this was much too fun to do only once!  You can also check out my web shop to score a bag of your own.  Happy Year of the Rabbit!  Best, Ang


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A Declaration of Craft

It was a busy one for me here last week.  Not only have I upped the ante on my Japanese study, I’m still trying to figure out how to do laundry/shop for groceries/live here, etc., but I also discovered two — yes, two! — new-to-me craft stores.

Now those of you who are new to the craft scene (aka, all of you who come to this blog for the food and are tricked into reading about fabric) may think all craft stores are the same.  Not so, dear friends.  Some are like warehouses where you have to dig through piles of musty fabric for a scrap of gold, and some are classy establishments, like La Droguerie.

La Droguerie is beautiful.  (No photos are allowed inside, so I snapped that shot on my way out.)  It is probably the most beautiful craft shop I’ve ever seen, and I have seen many in my short craft life.  Bobbles and buttons are kept in big glass jars on well-lit shelves, and colorful rows of ribbons hang amongst fabric and other notions.

La Droguerie is a French chain that sells mainly their own brand of yarns.  I learned later that you are not supposed to rummage through the jars yourself, but rather wait for a salesperson to come over and do it for you.  Whoops.  I totally had my hands in some piles of felt.  It just couldn’t be avoided.  Also, everything was very expensive.  I wanted a tiny bit of some trim that was unpriced, and thought, “How expensive can some trim be, anyway?”  Well, expensive.  Though, now I have a mighty fine improved-upon Ikea lamp to show for it:

La Droguerie was nice to look at, though I’m not sure I need to visit it too often.  Especially because two days later, I found Yuzawaya ユザワヤ — eight buildings of crafts spread out along three city blocks.  After the excited/frantic and perhaps unintelligible text message I sent to Dan, he reminded me to breathe and eat, advice I thankfully followed or I certainly would have passed out.  In fact, as I inhaled some deep fried tofu skins (don’t cringe, it’s delicious!) while standing in an alley behind a 7-11, I realized I might indeed have a problem.  But, more on that later.

I spent a lot of time at Yuzawaya that day and only made it through 1.5 of the 8 buildings before they closed their doors for the night.  A felted wedding cake anyone?  How about an adorable DIY stuffed mouse?  Or a Hello Kitty kimono?  It could all be mine!

It was while at Yuzawaya when I realized that making things is more than just a hobby for me.  It doesn’t have to be a problem — why not embrace it?!  (Cue light bulb.) Though this Declaration of Craft will not surprise many of my friends and family, I have somehow surprised myself.  And so, I have a new focus for my time here in Tokyo — in addition to exploring a new city and learning a new language, I’ll be venturing on some other craft-related endeavors.  Huzzah!  I promise to share in due time.

For those of you interested in visiting these places yourselves:

La Droguerie Ometesando
Omotesando LH bldg 1F
4-13-9, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Ometesando station – behind Ometesando Hills

Yuzawaya ユザワヤ
4-12, Nishikamata 8-chome, Ohta-ku, Tokyo
Kamata station – take a left from the West Exit, walk under the tracks, look for signs to your right

I’m currently compiling a Tokyo craft guide, so check back for that in a few weeks.  Thanks!

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On pins and needles for pins and needles

I hit the jackpot.

For the past week I halfheartedly sought out craft shops.  A few were smaller than I expected, and I was starting to loose a little faith in Japan’s craft craziness.  Then I found Okadaya in Shinjuku — 2 buildings with 7 floors each of so many crafts I didn’t quite know what to do with myself.  Some of the highlights:

The first photo shows one shelf of my favorite fabric, Liberty of London.  This is the usual selection you’ll find at a fabric store in the US, and Okadaya had at least 8 more shelves like this one.  The wall of embroidery floss was amazing.  The store was too small for me to get far enough from the wall to take it all in with my camera.  And finally, I discovered an entire level dedicated to craft books.  An entire level!

I showed incredible restraint, and left with just a few treasures:

First I found 刺し子 (sashiko, literally meaning “little stabs”), a Japanese style of embroidery.  I had read about this at Purl, and am excited to finally try it.  I also picked up a few squares of some great linen, which might find a home in my kitchen somehow.

As excited as I am about Okadaya, my next find was even greater.  Just 3 doors down, I stumbled into this place:

A tiny shop dedicated to nothing else but sewing machines!  It was a really small space, but probably had over 50 different machines on display.  I’ve been shopping for one (obviously) and have even learned how to ask a salesperson where to find them, so I was super pumped to find this little gem.  I definitely did not leave empty-handed…

TA DA!  I am pretty excited about my Brother ELU52.  It is a small machine with basic functions, but it will keep me busy while I’m here in Japan.  Good thing I already know how to work the little guy:

You should see the instruction booklet…